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COPYRIGHT DEPOSET. 



FIGHTING FOR A 
NEW WORLD 



BY 
CHARLES WILLIAM DABNEY 

President of the University of Cincinnati 




THE ABINGDON PRESS 
NEW YORK CINCINNATI 






Copyright, 1919, by 
CHARLES WILLIAM DABNEY 



oUiH 14 blii 



©CI.A525875 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword 5 

I. A Better Era 7 

II. True Preparedness 30 

III. A Spiritual Victory 49 

IV. Internationalism or Imperialism — 

Which.? 68 

V. Fighting for a New World 93 



FOREWORD 

This little volume consists of addresses 
which were delivered before students and 
others at different times during the Great 
War. Each address deals with the question 
which at that particular time seemed to be 
uppermost in the minds of the American 
people. Hence it may be safe to say that 
each discussion not only represents my own 
reaction to these problems, but also reflects, 
at least in a general way, the main current 
of public opinion in the country during the 
past four years. Although they were originally 
written as separate addresses, without any 
deliberate plan of unity, yet it will be found 
that they do exhibit a certain continuity of 
thought, which might be characterized as the 
growing conviction that America had to do 
her part in the world struggle for democracy 
and to take the leadership in establishing a 
brotherhood of free nations. 

Charles William Dabney. 



A BETTER ERA 

Since the world began men have been 
thinking and dreaming of a better era. A 
golden age or a millennium of righteousness 
has been the goal of the philosophies of all 
peoples. It was the dream of the Hindus, the 
prophecy of the Hebrews, the hope of the 
Greeks, the plan of the Romans, and the 
teaching of Christ. 

Immanuel Kant, the great prophet of the 
Germans, expressed the most profound thought 
of his people in words of lasting significance. 
His philosophy was founded upon two eternal 
moral maxims: the universality of the law of 
right and the supreme consideration due each 
human personality. He taught that no ne- 
cessity or particular consideration whatever can 
be weighed against the universal demands of 
the law of right. What is right for one man 
in one place is right for all men everywhere. 
His second maxim teaches that man is not 
a thing, but a person, and that to treat each 
man as a person is the first law of all human 

7 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

relationships; tliat each man has his indi- 
vidual rights. The law of right is universal 
and each man's right is supreme. Believing 
that these doctrines were applicable to nations, 
as well as to Individuals, Kant taught that 
the nations of the earth should live together 
in a federation of mutual respect and friendly 
cooperation, and thus establish universal peace. 
Is Kant's teaching false because his people 
have gone to war? Never! As he spoke to 
the German people one hundred and fifty 
years ago, so he speaks to all the nations of 
the earth to-day. 

Like the German philosopher, the English 
poet taught us to hope for the "Parliament of 
Man— The Federation of the World." Tenny- 
son believed "the thoughts of men are widened 
with the process of the suns." 

"We sleep and wake and sleep, but all th;ngs move; 
The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; 
The dark Earth follows, wheeled in her ellipse; 
And human things returning on themselves 
Move onward, leading up the golden year." 

Such doctrines, hopes, and dreams are in- 
herent in the human mind and heart, and are 
the foundations of all our thought of human 

progress. We cannot uproot them and con- 

8 



A BETTER ERA 

tinue to think. We cannot give them up and 
Hve. 

In the course of history man has had many 
discouragements in his hopes for universal 
peace and his plans for human progress, but 
none, perhaps, more crushing than this catas- 
trophe. For this war shows that we do not 
really recognize the universality of Kant's 
Law of Right, and that we are still far, far 
from the "Federation of the World" of Tenny- 
son. All the philosophies which promised to 
bring in the golden era appear now to have 
failed us. If we must judge from the actions 
of some nations, there is still no law but the 
law of the jungle, and no federation except the 
federation of cruelty and of hate. 

And what a tremendous shock it was to all 
our theories ! Four years ago many of us could 
have given a score or more of reasons why a 
great world war never again could occur. 
We believed that there were too many eco- 
nomic and political, as well as moral and 
religious, influences opposed to war. 

Norman Angell had taught us that the 
idea that war promoted the material interests 
of the conqueror was a "Great Illusion," and, 
therefore, that the bankers and the economists 

9 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

would never permit another war. But money 
and business did not prevent war. The mil- 
itarists claimed that great armaments would 
prevent war. But we know now that the 
doctrine, "In time of peace, prepare for war," 
was a horrible falsehood. The supposed instru- 
ments of law and peace have proved the 
instruments of murder and destruction. 

Many thought that science would certainly 
prevent war between educated nations. Biology 
had shown us the folly of destroying the best 
of the nations, the seed-corn of the future. 
But science too sold herself to militarism and 
became its willing servant in making explosives 
for destroying this seed-corn. 

Internationalism also failed. In July the dep- 
uties of the societies in the various countries 
met in Brussels and passed the usual resolu- 
tions against war, but in August they were 
all marching under arms to the fratricidal 
contest. 

Sad indeed was the failure of the peace 

societies. We did not expect much from their 

social meetings held in magnificent palaces, 

but some of us had hoped that great good 

would result from international peace tribunals 

and courts of arbitration. Although the peace 

10 



A BETTER ERA 

societies were meeting in Switzerland at the 
time the armies were mobilizing, they had 
no more influence upon the nations rushing 
into war than the twittering sparrows have 
upon the railway trains dashing through the 
forests. 

The statesmen of some of the nations labored 
to prevent war, but they too failed. Diplo- 
macy, looked upon as the trusted watchman 
of peace, became in those last days the willing 
tool of the war makers. 

Saddest of all, Christianity, founded by the 
Prince of Peace, failed to prevent war. This 
war was man's new fall, his saddest fall since 
Christ came to save him. The whole drama 
of this war states in terrible terms the un- 
Christianity of Christendom. It measures again 
the awful task that Christ undertook when 
he came to redeem mankind and called man 
to the establishment of a divine kingdom by 
love and sacrifice. Do we ask again with new 
urgency: "After all, is Christ's program for 
human society practical .^^ Is he, indeed, the 
answer to the world's need.^ If he is, per- 
haps, the answer to the need of the individual 
human soul, can states be conducted under 

this Christ constitution? Is it possible to 

11 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

govern the world by love?" By dreadnought 
and submarine, by Zeppelin and aeroplane, by 
mortar and howitzer; with torpedo and bomb, 
with shell and shrapnel, with dynamite and 
poisonous gas, turned against women and 
children, as well as against fighting men, 
with a skill never equaled and a cruelty 
unsurpassed, the nations answered with a 
thunderous "No!" "No!" said these voices of 
hell, "there is no such thing as human love and 
brotherhood." Christendom has yet to learn 
what the application of the principles of Christ 
demands in relation not only to personal, 
but also to social, industrial, and national 
lives. 

What, then, is the lesson of this collapse 
of civilization? Religious-minded people think 
that it is a new revelation of God. This war 
is, in fact, the most apocalyptic thing in all 
history. It has broken the entail of the past. 
Modern European history has been said to 
date from the Napoleonic Wars. Our new 
modern history will date from 1914. We are 
now laying its foundation. The war has thus 
brought the world a magnificent opportunity 
to make a new beginning. 

History teaches us that these moral catas- 
12 



A BETTER ERA 

trophes all have their causes. They are pre- 
pared by the acts of men and nations. Wise 
old Dr. Holmes said: "War is no accident, 
but an inevitable result of long incubating 
causes; inevitable as the cataclysms that swept 
away those monstrous births of primeval na- 
tions." If this be true, the occurrences of 
August, 1914, the intensification of the strife, 
the enlargement of its area, and the tremendous 
issues, should make men look to the larger 
facts which lie behind these events. 

For several decades our universities have 
been absorbed with the evolutionary philos- 
ophy. Up to the outbreak of the war, many 
of us had been taught to think of the future 
of mankind in terms of evolution, that is, 
that progress is made by slow and gradual 
steps only, or, as one has said, "by the aggre- 
gation of infinitesimal increments of advance." 
This way of looking at human things was due, 
of course, to the triumph of the evolutionary 
theory in natural science. Since the progress 
of nature is so inconceivably slow, how absurd 
it is, they said, for us to be impatient with 
social wrong! It was unscientific to expect 
human society to improve any faster. If 
nature takes so long to evolve the soul, how 

13 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

absurd for the theologians to teach that the 
soul can be new-born in a moment! 

The historians of human thought will trace 
the great and all-pervading influence of the 
theory of Darwin on the whole realm of social, 
political, and religious thought and action. 
This newest materialism has blunted the edge 
of our religious thinking, and is largely respon- 
sible for the terrible error from which we are 
suffering to-day. But its end is near. Even 
before this cataclysm we were coming to see 
that evolution by infinitesimal increments, 
while perhaps true up to a certain point in 
nature, was not a complete account of human 
life. There is much in science, as well as in 
history, that cannot be accounted for by its 
formula. De Vries teaches us now that evolu- 
tion is not sufficient to account for many facts 
of plant life, and the bacteriologists tell us that 
it does not explain many phenomena in their 
field. All we are learning about the nature of 
matter leads us to the same conclusion. Tre- 
mendous leaps have been discovered in nature 
which contradict the theory of Darwin. We 
believe now that there is in human history 
a revolutionary, as well as an evolutionary, 
element. Just as we believe that there are 

14 



A BETTER ERA 

perfectly new personalities being born in th^ 
world which are more than rearrangements of 
the characteristics of their ancestors, so we 
believe that there have been clean, new be- 
ginnings, prodigious and sudden cataclysms in 
human society. Is not this one of them? 

Why do we believe in revolution as well as 
evolution? Most men still believe that they 
are free. Then the moment we give a place to 
human freedom, we realize that the theory of 
evolution by infinitesimal degrees is insuflScient 
to describe human life. We borrow evolution 
from nature, but nature's categories cannot ex- 
plain human nature. When we come to study 
men, we must use a new term, we must speak 
of education, and education is an entirely 
different process from evolution. If this be so, 
the apocalypse, the revelation of truth through 
revolution, is a part of God's plan for the 
education of man. 

We must believe, I say, that man is by his 
very nature endowed with freedom. If man 
chooses, he can go wrong. Sometimes he goes 
wrong for years together, sometimes whole na- 
tions go wrong for decades. Thus begins the 
downward process. See how it evolves. Evil 

appears to triumph everywhere; the wicked 

15 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

prosper more than the righteous, and the fool 
says in his heart that the wrong works better 
than the right. 

Under all discouragement, however, the fight 
for righteousness goes on. There is in this 
world such a thing as judgment, and all this 
time judgment is accumulated. When men 
have been outraged until they will stand it no 
longer, then comes a revolution. Darkness 
falls. The wind of death wraps the nations in 
its wings. Civilizations sink in blood. Once 
more men see what sin means. All the evil 
hidden during the years is dragged out into 
the light of eternity. It is shown once again 
that evil does not succeed in God's world. The 
old Hebrew philosophy is again shown to be 
eternally right, and men realize that this is only 
another apocalypse, a moment of judgment. 

But history teaches us that such cataclysms 
are not the end ; they are the beginning. There 
is in them not merely a possibility, but a prom- 
ise of progress as sudden and immense as was 
the coming of the Judgment. Time and time 
again there has come, breaking out of the wreck 
of the past, one of these forward leaps in his- 
tory. May we not in this dark hour look for- 
ward to such a dawn.? Moreover, what we 

16 



A BETTER ERA 

hope for is not simply a zig-zagging, slow-climb- 
ing, evolutionary path up the height of civili- 
zation from which we have fallen, but the 
beginning of a new era on a new moral basis. 
Thus it is that as our eyes grow accustomed 
to the night, we see through the darkness the 
eternal stars pointing the true way of human 
progress, which is the way, not of evolution, 
but of revolution — of revolution directed by an 
all-powerful and righteous God, who is also a 
God of mercy and of love. 

What we have now to look forward to is 
a new epoch which God has initiated by his 
judgment, and in which he will regenerate and 
heal, if men will only turn to him. Not evolu- 
tion, therefore, but the judgment and the 
mercy of God are the ideas which come to us 
to-day with new power and hope, as we look 
through the symbolism of this apocalypse into 
the eternal truth. 

Will men only respond to God's summons 
in this judgment .^^ Never in history has man 
had such an opportunity to learn what pride 
and war mean. Twenty-five million men have 
probably experienced it in their own bodies and 
souls, and perhaps a billion other men, women, 
and little children have suffered its horrors 

17 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

with them. And, alas! the conclusion of the 
war cannot end this suffering. Unborn chil- 
dren will bear its burdens and sorrows for ages 
to come. Will men learn the lesson and pass 
from the condemnation of war to the condemna- 
tion of the spirit that makes war? Will they 
see the revelation, will they then receive it 
and learn its lesson .^^ Under the tuition of 
his Spirit, we believe they will. This is God's 
apocalypse. Again a tremendous, forgotten 
biblical truth is receiving transcendent ex- 
pression. Sin has worked death. 

What, then, is the conclusion of the whole 
matter .f^ On what ground may we hope for 
the progress of humanity .f* Only on the ground 
that God rules. Only on the ground that God 
so loved the world that he gave his Son to save 
it. Does history give us hope to-day? Has 
Christianity failed to influence the lives of men 
and nations? Have these twenty centuries 
counted for naught? Let us see. 

When we ask in what respect the modern 
world is an improvement upon the ancient, a 
common answer is that the development of the 
physical forces and their applications in pro- 
duction, transportation, and the other con- 
veniences of life are the vital achievements. 

18 



A BETTER ERA 

If this is all, we are not surprised that we 
have made no progress toward the abolition of 
war, for the development of physical force only 
creates more wealth and contributes little to 
man's spiritual life. Have we, then, made no 
spiritual progress in modern times? The evi- 
dences of our material civilization, exhibited in 
manufactures, commerce, trade, and the com- 
forts of modern life, are on the surface and 
apparent to all. It is not so easy to prove 
our moral progress. The spiritual growth of 
man is necessarily slower. It is only through 
labor and sorrow that the soul is saved. The 
battle of the spirit against the flesh is terrible, 
in nations as well as in individuals. Often 
when a new fortress of righteousness seems 
about to be taken by the white-robed war- 
riors of the soul, the black hordes of the ele- 
mental passions burst forth and drive them 
back to the plains where the battle has to be 
begun all over. But in spite of all these losses 
and discouragements, it is still true, is it not, 
that the supreme glory of the modern world is 
the development of a sense of humanity, and 
the realization of the brotherhood of man? 
Slowly, and through grievous struggles, man 
is learning that all men "should brothers 

19 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

be," and that "Above all nations is hu- 
manity." 

The war itself gave many opportunities for 
the further development of this spirit, proving 
anew its vitality and power to heal. It is true, 
is it not, that while on the one side there never 
was such a cruel war, on the other there never 
were so many manifestations of the sympathy 
of man for man.^ The work of the Red Cross 
and of the Relief Commissions shows that even 
during this dreadful time the spirit of humanity 
grew. Never in history was there such an 
overwhelming outpouring of generous aid and 
tender sympathy, regardless of the race, rank, 
and nationality of the suffering. This is the 
true neutrality; this is the one encouraging 
thing in these sad months. Strange as it may 
seem at such a time, the whole world, as well 
as America, is developing an ever-stronger 
sympathy. 

We are deeply concerned about the influ- 
ence of this catastrophe upon our young men. 
While it is undoubtedly true that war, through 
service to the sick and wounded, contributes 
to our spiritual development, its influence 
upon the young is, in many respects, vicious. 
The war spirit exalts physical prowess and 

20 



A BETTER ERA 

martial success, glorifying the heroism of the 
soldier, the professional destroyer of human 
life. We are bound to admire self-sacrificing 
courage wherever found, and nothing perhaps 
appeals to the young like the heroism of battle. 
But the warrior is not the highest type of hero. 
Wordsworth, it is said, wrote his "Happy 
Warrior" as a protest against the attention be- 
stowed upon the military characters developed 
in the French war, and especially against the 
praise heaped upon Lord Nelson, whose public 
life was even then stained by a great crime. 

"Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he 

That every man in arms should wish to be?" . . . 

"It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought 

Among the tasks of real life, . . . 

Makes his moral being his prime care; . . . 

More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure, 

As tempted more; more able to endure. 

As more exposed to suffering and distress; 

Thence, also, more alive to tenderness." 

But the love of fight is an instinct inherited 

from the countless generations of men. 

Through physical contest largely man has 

attained to his present position, and it is to 

this love of contest that the statesmen and the 

generals appeal when they call men to war. 

We are dealing here with something original, 

21 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

natural, universal, and, I believe, also inde- 
structible — a force that lies deeper in human 
nature than ambition or love of self. Since 
this love of warfare is one of the strongest 
natural instincts, it is hopeless to undertake its 
total suppression. The impulse is closely re- 
lated to the instinct of self-preservation, and 
to that of hunger and of sex, which, we know, 
can never be extirpated so long as the race 
lives. The problem, then, is not how to erad- 
icate this love of contest, but how to direct 
it into proper channels. 

Just as we have utilized the great natural 
forces for useful purposes, so we must direct 
these great natural instincts in such a way that 
they shall become humanizing and creative, 
instead of cruel and destructive. Lightning 
was regarded by primitive man as purely 
destructive. Jove cast his bolts in anger and 
for the punishment of men; but electricity, 
first caught from the clouds by Franklin, has 
been thoroughly mastered by Volta, Faraday, 
and Edison, until now it is accepted as the 
most serviceable instrument of human welfare, 
operating our machinery, lighting our habita- 
tions, and flashing our thoughts around the 
world. Precisely in this manner we have al- 

22 



A BETTER ERA 

ready conquered some of these primordial in- 
stincts. Hunger, a brutal passion in the sav- 
age, has been at least partially refined, until 
now all civilized men eat and drink without 
fighting, and some of us even in accordance 
with the laws of dietetics. So too the passion 
of sex, which among early men wrought fright- 
ful brutality, and which has been in all ages 
the curse of civilization, has now become 
among moral people the greatest constructive 
force of human society — bringing together the 
family, which is the unit of society, the unit 
of government, the unit of church, and the 
beginning of heaven on earth. In similar 
manner we must civilize this appalling passion 
for war and convert this natural fighting in- 
stinct from barbarous and destructive uses to 
humane and beneficent ends. The fierce im- 
pulses that stir nations to war must be applied 
to mercy instead of to misery, to rescue instead 
of to ruin, to life instead of to death. 

These humanitarian tasks may be unro- 
mantic — they are usually unexciting — but they 
often try men's hearts as severely as does any 
battle. The courage of the soldier is strongly 
sustained by companionship. Whether march- 
ing into battle or lying in a trench, he has the 

23 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

support of his fellows and looks forward to 
promotion and to glory. But plain men are 
daily dying in solitude for humanity. The 
professional soldier leads a healthful and rou- 
tine life which may last for years, and has 
in his whole career only one day, or perhaps 
one hour, of danger, while some of our ordinary 
workers are daily risking their lives without 
any suspicion that they are acting the part of 
heroes. The miner enters each day into the 
tunnel where he may be crushed, smothered, 
or blown up; the riveter works at his perilous 
task high in the air on the skeleton of a many- 
storied building; the physician faces disease 
without fear, striving to overcome some great 
epidemic; the explorer tramps hundreds of 
miles through trackless swamps and forests 
filled with wild men and beasts; the mission- 
ary seeks some far-away land and commits 
the life of his family to the mercy of a savage 
people whom he seeks to save — none of these 
thinks he is a hero. They are only doing their 
duty. Such men, as well as those who fight our 
physical battles, are true soldiers. 

"Dream not helm and harness 

The sign of valor true; 
Peace hath higher tests of manhood 

Than battle ever knew." 
24 



A BETTER ERA 

The man who stood at the head of my class 
at the university, a fine classical scholar, 
immediately on graduation, asked the Amer- 
ican Board of Foreign Missions to send him 
to some needy place that no one else would 
take. It was important at the time, for the 
sake of humanity, that a station be estab- 
lished in that far-away corner of Alaska inside 
the arctic circle, known as Cape Prince of 
Wales. Harry Thornton accepted the task and 
went there with his young wife to establish 
a mission for a small tribe of uncivilized people. 
After laboring six years without seeing a man 
of his own race, he was assassinated by some 
of the people he was trying to help. But 
before he died Thornton had started a school 
and a church which have since become the 
center of civilization for all that region. 

Never was there a nobler band of soldiers 
than the small one organized by Major Reed, 
of Virginia, to study yellow fever in Cuba. 
Reed and his companions, Carroll and Lazear, 
accomplished their appointed task and then 
gave up their lives. No deed of battle ever 
surpassed the self-sacrifice of Lazear, who de- 
liberately let mosquitoes settle on his hand 
and infect him with yellow fever. He was 

25 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

willing to sacrifice himself in order that the 
world might be delivered from a scourge which 
had caused the death of more Americans than 
all our wars. 

It is not necessary, either, to go to foreign 
lands in order to give one's life in this way. 
Howard Taylor Ricketts, of Rush Medical 
College, Chicago, and Thomas Brown Mc- 
Clintic, of the University of Virginia, both 
sacrificed their lives in similar manner in order 
to discover the cause and cure of Rocky Moun- 
tain fever. 

The present war has also brought heroes of 
science and humanity. The war against typhus 
in Serbia has been conducted by a noble band 
of physicians, many of them Americans. James 
F. Donnelly, of Brookl^-n, and Ernest P. Ma- 
gruder, of Washington, both oflBcers of the 
American Red Cross, have already given their 
lives for this cause. We, of Cincinnati, may 
well be proud of the heroism of our fellow 
townsman, Dr. Paul Morton Lane, who, after re- 
covering from the t\TDhus contracted in Serbia, 
has returned to help that afflicted people. 

But you do not have to be a soldier or army 
surgeon in order to give your life for human- 
ity. Disease and dirt, ignorance and super- 



A BETTER ERA 

stition, are just as dangerous as ball and 
shrapnel. Brutality and savagery are often as 
firmly intrenched and as difficult to dislodge 
from their fortresses as maxims and howitzers 
behind barbed wire. It is a brave thing to 
be a soldier, but it is a still braver thing to be 
a saviour. 

Shall not the time come, therefore, when 
the application of this fighting instinct to the 
purposes of war will be considered a base 
prostitution of a noble force in human nature, 
a condition from which true men will turn 
with horror, to devote themselves to the real 
wars of humanity.'^ ^^^len that time does 
come, as it surely will, the famous names of his- 
tory vdW not be those of great generals who 
have destroyed hostile armies, but those of the 
foremost leaders of thought who have directed 
the forces of science and of education for the 
healing and the salvation of the nations. 

What, then, is the duty of our colleges and 
universities.^ We found that there was nothing 
wrong in fighting, provided you were fighting 
the right enemy, for the right cause, with 
proper weapons, and in a decent way. The 
problem before us is to apply this fighting 

spirit to the urgent tasks of science, medicine, 

27 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

education, religion, and mercy. Hundreds of 
noble causes call for thousands of trained men 
and women. Our universities and colleges 
should then constitute the general staff of this 
world army of philanthropy carrying on cam- 
paigns for the development of all human 
resources and for the destruction of the diseases 
of body and soul. Colleges and universities 
are not merely places for study. They should 
be the brains and the hearts to direct the 
world in action. As Milton said: "I cannot 
praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexer- 
cised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and 
sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race 
where that immortal garland is to be run for." 

Let the colleges, then, declare a war for 
civilization; let them call to the colors of hu- 
manity the heroic youth of the world and 
join battle with the forces of ignorance and 
barbarism. 

What shall be the part of our country in 
bringing in this "Better Era"? Some en- 
thusiasts declare that we should be the arbiter 
of the nations in this terrible crisis. This 
suggests a boastful spirit. By all means let 
us be peace-makers, if we may, but not Phar- 
isees, thanking God that we are not as other 

28 



A BETTER ERA 

men are. Let us first confess our own sins of 
aggression and cruelty. Let us be grateful 
for our situation between the seas, for our 
institutions, for our freedom, for our ideals, 
and, especially, for the privilege of ministering 
to those suffering in the war. If this be our 
spirit, the opportunity for service to humanity 
will be even greater after than during the 
war. We hope it is the mission of America 
to show the nations how to live together like 
brethren in a strong federation. If we only 
keep our hands clean of innocent blood, we 
may help to make peace among the nations. 
If we only keep our conscience clear, America 
may become the conscience of the world, and 
propagate the ideals of right over might, of 
law over force, of service over conquest. But 
America can best serve mankind at this awful 
time by keeping right herself. The higher our 
standards of national conduct, the greater will 
be our power in the "Better Era." In this 
way only can we prepare our nation to dis- 
charge the task imposed upon her as the 
champion of humanity. Not for our own 
salvation, not for our own glory, but for hu- 
manity's sake, let us, therefore, now recon- 
secrate ourselves to truth and righteousness. 

29 



II 

TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

Preparedness is the theme of the hour. 
The newspapers and magazines discuss little 
else. We have preparedness processions and 
preparedness conventions; preparedness drills 
and preparedness camps. Most of us accept 
military preparedness as an unfortunate ne- 
cessity in this stage of the world's development. 
No true citizen would neglect any measure for 
the security of the nation, I shall, therefore, 
not argue for military preparedness. But the 
application of the preparedness idea does not 
cease there. Caught by a new word, fascinated 
by a new phrase, men are preaching prepared- 
ness as a universal measure. Its advocates 
proceed enthusiastically to apply it to industry, 
to government, and to private life, as well as 
to plans for the defense of the nation. It is 
to be the remedy for every political and social 
evil, the method of promoting every economic 
and industrial interest. Attracted by the pop- 
ular excitement, the reformers and agitators, 
the politicians and demagogues, the faddists 

30 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

and fakirs are everywhere shouting for pre- 
paredness. The need of preparedness has come 
to be spoken of also by serious people as an 
axiom and an aphorism. Some would make 
it the criterion of every social program, the 
shibboleth of every political party. It is a 
dictum to which we must assent or be out- 
casts, a creed we must accept or be damned. 
At such a time it is well to think soberly of 
the whole subject. 

Let us remember, first, that this excitement 
about military preparedness has a temporary 
cause. This cause is found in the two awful 
tragedies of the day — the bitter tragedy of 
the war in Europe and the smaller, but to us, 
nearer, tragedy of the utter breakdown of 
government in Mexico. The spectacle of so 
many armed men, equipped in such marvelous 
fashion to use such titanic forces in such des- 
perate fighting, naturally arouses much emo- 
tional excitement concerning military matters. 
The storm of anarchy raging now for nearly 
five years in Mexico, which on several occa- 
sions has thrown its bloody waves upon our 
shores, also awakens our deep concern, and 
turns our thoughts to means of defense and 

restoration of order. This is all very natural, 

31 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

but such spectacles and such fears furnish no 
proper basis for an estimate of our permanent 
necessities and requirements. They should 
be considered only as object lessons of the 
advisability of preparedness everywhere and 
always. 

This propaganda in favor of preparedness has 
the fault of every propaganda. Its advocates 
are so excited that they have only a vague 
idea of the principle involved. The prepara- 
tion of a nation is a long process. The military 
preparation of the Central Powers has required 
a hundred and fifty years. To say too that 
their preparation was military is to state only 
a part of the truth. As a matter of fact, their 
preparation has consisted chiefly, not in the 
production of armam.ents, but in the training 
of their people to believe in militarism. 

In the first place, let us remember that the 
doctrine of preparedness is as old as nature 
and history. The preparation of the earth 
through the ages and the preparation of plants 
and animals, period by period, is an essential 
part of the modern doctrine of evolution, but 
thousands of years before evolution was con- 
ceived of, men recognized the truth of pre- 
paredness in nature and taught the law of 

32 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

preparation in government, industry, and com- 
merce, as well as in war. Nature, history, and 
practical experience have, in fact, taught men 
through the ages the necessity of systematic 
preparation in all departments of life. The 
course of nature is one continuous process of 
preparation. Astronomy, geology, and biology 
all teach us that the material world was pro- 
gressively prepared, just as history, philosophy, 
and religion teach us that the minds and souls 
of men have been prepared through the ages. 

If we consider, first, the material world, 
and look up into the heavens through the 
telescope, we learn that out of chaos was 
prepared a cosmos, and out of nebulae, the 
planetary systems with their suns, moons, and 
worlds. If by the aid of chemistry we look 
down into the minute things of matter, we see 
that out of electrons are prepared atoms; out 
of atoms, molecules; out of molecules, crystals; 
out of crystals, mountain ranges. So physical 
geology teaches us that each change on the 
surface of the earth was a preparation for 
another change, each period a step in the 
preparation of the earth for man. Mountain 
and plain, river and ocean, all were prepared 
by the Creator for the coming of man, the 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

creature made in his image, who was to have 
dominion over them all. We see more clearly 
every year that the material world was pre- 
pared deliberately and with design and purpose 
to be the home of life, culminating in the 
life of mind and spirit. As the wise man said, 
three thousand years ago: "The Lord by wis- 
dom hath founded the earth; by understanding 
hath he established the heavens. By his knowl- 
edge the depths are broken up, and the clouds 
drop down the dew." 

So it is also in the world of life. Each 
species of plant was a preparation for a more 
perfect one — the algae for the ferns, and the 
ferns for the flowering plants. Every new 
animal was a preparation for a higher one — • 
fishes for reptiles, and reptiles for mammals. 
First the frost and water, then the bacteria 
and earthworms, prepare the soil for the grass; 
the grass is food for the ox; and the ox is food 
for man. The seasons also sing of preparation 
for the coming life — winter for spring and its 
flowers, spring for summer and its harvests, 
and summer for autumn and its fruits. In 
all our plans we rely upon the orderly sequence 
of the days, the months, and the seasons — 
morning preparing for noon, noon for night, 

34 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

and each month for the next, the year round. 
The farmer rehes upon nature's help in pre- 
paring the soil and in supplying the rain. 
Wise husbandmen, like the squirrels, lay in 
their fruits for the coming winter; "like the 
ants, a people not strong, they prepare their 
meat in the summer." 

Now, as it is in the cosmic orders, planetary 
systems, geologic periods, and genera of plants 
and animals, as it is with the seasons, so it 
is with each individual life, whether it be a 
bacterium, plant, animal, or man. Each has 
a special period of preparation, a time of incu- 
bation or a chrysalis stage, as well as a spring 
of growth and a summer of fruitage, before it 
yields the stage of life to its successor. 

Of no living thing is this more true than of 
man. As all nature labored to prepare the 
world for man, so his preparation for complete 
living has been the task of the ages. To make 
man worthy of his Maker is the final end of 
all natural things — the end of our society, in- 
stitutions, and governments, as well as of our 
homes, schools, and churches. Philosophers 
tell us that as we go up the scale of life, whether 
it be bird, lower mammalian, or man, the 
period of infancy and preparation grows con- 

35 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

stantly longer and more important in its 
influence on the development of the species. 
The greater the brain and nervous system, 
the longer is the period of preparation. Prep- 
aration is the law of education. 

History teaches the same lesson. Each age, 
each nation, has been a preparation for a 
better age and a greater nation. To his chosen 
people God said: "Behold, I send an Angel 
before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to 
bring thee into the place which I have pre- 
pared." True to his promise, through all his- 
tory the angel of the Lord has led his people 
into one prepared land, then into another — 
first into Palestine, then into Greece, then to 
Rome, then into continental Europe, and now 
to America. Throughout all ages the command 
has been: "Prepare ye the way of the people; 
cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the 
stones; lift up a standard for the people." 

The solemn question for us to-day is: 
Whither shall the angel of the Lord lead his 
people next? It will surely be into a prepared 
land, into the land where men are ready to 
do the Lord's work. The leading people of the 
future will inhabit the land best prepared to 
develop men. Will it be Europe, will it be the 

36 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

Orient, or will it be America? If science and 
history teach us anything, they teach us that 
the great civilization of the future will de- 
velop in a prepared land among a prepared 
people. Whether Americans shall be that 
people will depend upon how they are pre- 
pared in body, mind, and soul. 

This law of preparation governs the spiritual 
as well as the material world. The minds and 
the spirits of men are being prepared, together 
with their bodies. Men were given a church 
and religion for the development of their 
spirits. As he made an earth for training 
their bodies, so God built a temple for train- 
ing the souls of men. Through the ages his 
spiritual temple has been preparing. Abraham 
built his altar at Bethel. With the stone that 
was his pillow when he had the vision of the 
ladder into heaven, Jacob built his house of 
the Lord. After the plans given by God in 
the mount, Moses built the tabernacle in the 
wilderness. We read that "All the work of 
Solomon was prepared unto the day of the 
foundation of the house of the Lord and until 
it was finished. So the house of the Lord was 
perfected." And the prophet declared: "And 
it shall come to pass in the latter days, that 

37 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

the mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
established in the top of the mountains, and 
shall be exalted above the hills; and all na- 
tions shall flow into it. And many people shall 
go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to 
the mountain of the Lord, to the house of 
the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his 
ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out 
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word 
of the Lord from Jerusalem." So in due 
course of time John the Baptist came "to 
make ready a people prepared for the Lord," 
and Jesus taught that his heaven was to be 
a prepared place for prepared men. "Come, 
ye blessed of my Father," he said, "inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the founda- 
tion of the world." 

There has always been, in every age, a 
leading people in a specially prepared land. 
Assyria, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, all had their 
day of glory and service. Do we desire that 
our land may be this prepared land, the land 
of peace, the home of progress and the mother 
of the coming race.^ What, then, is our ideal 
for America? Are wealth and power our only 
ends? Shall we be satisfied with mere quiet 

and the chance to feed and multiply? Or have 

38 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

we a higher ideal? "Broad-based upon her 
people's will," America has a higher destiny 
than to breed men and make them fat with 
ease. Theodore Parker has given us the 
classical definition of the American idea. In 
1850 he said: "This idea demands, as the 
proximate organization thereof, a democracy 
that is a government of all the people, by all 
the people, for all the people; a government of 
the principles of eternal justice; the unchanging 
law of God. For shortness' sake, I shall call 
it the idea of Freedom." This is the American 
idea, this is the purpose of our nation, the 
realization of freedom in a democracy, the 
embodiment of eternal justice in a government 
of the people. This government which our 
fathers left us it is our duty to preserve and 
develop. How, then, shall we, their descend- 
ants, do this? Can we do it merely by mar- 
shaling our industries and drilling our people 
as some propose? Can we by "scientific 
efficiency" save America and make her a moral 
power in the world? Preparedness is not 
merely the training of the people in "scientific 
efficiency," that is, "mechanized efficiency." 
True national preparedness is something far 

different from and much larger than engineering 

99 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

skill or industrial organization; it is socialized 
energy, it is the intelligence and character of 
a people organized for service. This kind of 
efficiency cannot be drilled into a people by 
autocratic authority. Social efficiency is a 
human, a spiritual quality. 

Moreover, such a quality becomes a social 
force only through democratic agencies. A 
machine may be efficient in a certain sense, 
but it cannot be efficient in the sense that a 
human being is; for a machine cannot con- 
form itself to conditions, but must, when not 
directed by a man, perform one process at all 
times and under all circumstances. Only a 
human being can direct himself, guiding his 
actions by a mind and a conscience. In an 
autocracy the people need no conscience, for 
the sovereign orders what shall be done. Only 
in a democracy, where men are free to use 
their own minds and consciences, can true 
social efficiency exist. In an autocracy the 
people cannot possess this socialized energy; 
they cannot be truly efficient. As Shelley says: 

"Power, like a desolating pestilence. 
Pollutes whate'er it touches, and obedience. 
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth. 
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame 
A mechanized automaton." 
40 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

As I have said in another place :^ There is a 
wide difference in the point of view toward 
education in the monarchy and the repubHc. 
Founded upon the "divine right" to govern, the 
monarchy begins the training of its people by 
building universities and technical schools to 
educate agents to rule and officers to drill its 
subjects. It molds and trains rather than edu- 
cates its citizens from above downward, until 
each one is made to fit exactly into his appointed 
place and to do in the most efficient way his 
prescribed work. In such a government, the 
university for the classes comes first in time; 
the free public school for the masses comes last. 
In the democracy the order of procedure is ex- 
actly reversed. It begins with the free school 
and educates its citizens from below upward, 
through high schools and colleges, lifting all 
up, and up, in proportion to their quaUfica- 
tions, and finally sending the fit to the univer- 
sity to be made the leaders of thought and 
action. The democratic system of education 
gives every man the freest opportunity to be- 
come in the fullest measure all for which nature 
has fitted him. It aims to educate each indi- 
vidual so that he may attain the maximum of 

1 The Forum, February, 1900, p. 663. 
41 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

his possibilities in the direction of his peculiar 
talents and opportunities. This system pro- 
duces not a few classes of type men, as the 
system of the monarchy, but a world of freely 
developed souls, possessing infinite diversity of 
potentiality and purpose. The democracy gives 
a chance to the poor boy, as well as to the rich, 
and demands of each that he be the best and 
do the best he can. It aims, thus, not to trim 
the man to fit a httle place, but to educate him 
to carve out an ample place for himself. 

How, then, can the democracy develop this 
true efliciency? Only by educating and train- 
ing its individual members and giving them 
character, as well as intelligence. Where each 
individual is a part of the sovereign power, 
he must have not only intelligence, but con- 
science. The efficient democracy is embodied 
conscience and heart. 

In the sense in which the Germans conceive 
it, we have in this country no national system 
of education, and we are glad we have not. 
Such a system would be totally inconsistent 
with our free American institutions. We have 
no place in this country for a machine for man- 
ufacturing civil officials, soldiers, diplomats, or 
even legislators, much less scholars. We have 

42 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

no such national system, but we have a great 
body of educational institutions; not a ma- 
chine, but a living organism, potent to beget, 
nourish, and train men competent to discharge 
all the duties which belong to them as mem- 
bers of a free republic. 

This body of institutions is, as we have just 
seen, a growth, not a creation; the product^ 
not of any government or series of men even, 
but of the genius of the whole American peo- 
ple, working for two centuries in their own 
field, with the help of the whole world, to be 
sure, but guided by the spirit of their own in- 
stitutions.^ 

The paramount issue, then, that is brought 
home to us by this European war and by this 
anarchy in Mexico is not merely military prep- 
aration. That is necessary, but that is not 
enough. The paramount issue is the issue of the 
development, through the education and the 
moralization of the people, of a more perfect 
socialized energy. A state is truly great only in 
the moral qualities of its members, and moral 
qualities can be developed only by the mutual 
interaction of minds and hearts. The primary 

1 Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Johns Hopkins University, February 21, 
22, 1902, p. 55. 

43 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

business of the state is not war, it is the making 
of men. Character and courage are the first 
characteristics of the prepared people. Even 
in war it is not the big gun that wins the 
battle, it is the man behind the gun; it is not 
even the high explosive which actuates the 
gun, it is the character of the man. Not 
munitions but morale won the war. 

I have said enough, I hope, to show that 
we have much to do in the preparation of this 
nation, besides drilling soldiers, training nurses, 
or paying taxes for guns and munitions, war- 
ships and forts. It is by preparing ourselves 
that we can best prepare our country for the 
struggles ahead of her — by preparing ourselves 
in mind, heart, and conscience. Proud as we 
are of what has been done, it is my duty to 
say that our preparation has only just begun. 
We desire to become cooperating citizens of 
a nation prepared for the greatest tasks to 
which any people was ever called. Then we 
can best prepare this nation to meet these 
tasks by making ourselves noble men and 
women. 

"A people is but the attempt of many 
To rise to the completer life of one; 
And those who live as models for the 
Are singly of more value than they all.' 
44 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

The opportunity to serve comes to every 
prepared man and woman, and when it comes 
it will call for all the talents and all the char- 
acter one can muster. Prepare! Success is 
never accidental. There is no luck in the 
moral world. True success is always prepared. 

I have tried to show that education is not 
all, and efficiency is not enough; that there 
must be character back of education and 
efficiency. Man is something more than body 
and mind — he is a soul. 

Tolstoy said, "It is necessary for man to 
have a soul." Why.? Because there are many 
things which it is impossible to explain with- 
out a soul. One of these things is man's 
progress. In order to move forward the race 
has through all the centuries regularly had 
to sacrifice the body to the soul. In wars and 
martyrdoms, on the block and at the stake, 
man has given his body to make way for his 
spirit. The soul has been marching over the 
body through these thousands of years. Be- 
hind and above all human progress has stood 
the regnant soul. For this reason no other 
animal has progressed like man. Hogs to-day 
are just the same as the Gadarene swine which 

ran down the bluff of the Sea of Galilee. The 

45 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

horse is to-day no nobler than he was when 
Alexander drove him to his chariot. But man 
is still pressing up the heights of progress, 
holding in his hand the lamp of liberty that 
lights the path to the home of the immortals. 

It is also necessary for a nation to have a 
soul. Has America a soul.^ Our fathers made 
the great sacrifice that we might have souls, 
but are our souls marching on? What are 
we sacrificing for the souls of our children? 
Have we met the large issues of the last two 
years as we should have done? More than one 
nation has found its soul in these last terrible 
years. While their souls are marching on so 
grandly, some of us are wondering if Amer- 
icans have not been selling their souls for 
Mammon. Have we not failed to take the 
moral leadership we should? Morally have we 
not lost our way? 

Upon us will be the duty to lead this people 
back into the right way. Some of us will be 
called upon to sacrifice that the soul of this 
nation may go marching on. Are we ready, 
ready in spirit, as well as in mind and heart? 
We must prepare our souls, as well as our 
minds and hearts. The supremest prepared- 
ness is soul preparedness. 

46 



TRUE PREPAREDNESS 

How shall we get this soul preparedness? 
Only by the pursuit of truth and righteous- 
ness. Then must we have an ideal of the 
truth and a standard of righteousness; in 
other words, we must have a religion. With- 
out religion neither man nor nation can make 
any progress in righteousness, justice, or 
brotherhood. Religion is the only safe founda- 
tion of personal and national life. This is 
true of all forms of national life, but it is 
above all true of the democracy. Our whole 
American system rests upon the moral judg- 
ment and right feeling of the people, and 
religion is the only means of cultivating moral 
judgment and right feeling. I sincerely be- 
lieve that the only hope of the democracy is 
that the people shall believe in God and shall 
learn from him to live righteously and to 
love their fellow men. 

Saint Paul has taught us that the man 
whose light and strength is God can stand 
alone. He may be abused, vilified, persecuted, 
but he will not flinch. He will regard duty 
as a finer thing than life, prefer death to dis- 
honor, and stand face to face with grim terror, 
fighting on when all others have fled the field. 

We are told that the noblest thing Pompeii 
47 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

has yielded to the explorer was that "figure 
of a Roman soldier, clad in complete armor, 
who, true to duty, true to the proud name 
of a soldier of Rome, full of the stern courage 
which had given that name its glory, stood 
to his post by the city gate, erect and un- 
flinching, until the hell that raged around him 
burned out the dauntless spirit it could not 
conquer." Such, doubtless, was the Roman 
soldier Paul had in mind. Magnificent example 
of the man now needed to withstand the vol- 
canic eruptions of these times! Like that Ro- 
man soldier, may we stand, having our loins 
girt about with truth, and having on the 
breastplate of righteousness; and our feet shod 
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. 



48 



Ill 

A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

The great war in which we have been en- 
gaged is only one phase of this same age-old 
contest between the spirit and the flesh, be- 
tween right and might, which has been going 
on since the world began. The "will to power" 
led Cain to kill his brother, just as it led men 
to-day to kill their brethren. But this brutal 
lust for power will not conquer in the end. 
The desire of the human soul for liberty and 
righteousness cannot be killed. Little by little 
man is winning the freedom and justice which 
is the only basis of permanent peace. It was 
a desperate struggle from the beginning, but 
the champions of the Spirit are winning to-day 
as they have always won. For God has given 
them the pledge of his support. To the sol- 
diers of liberty his command comes again. 

We are indeed fortunate to be living in such 
times as these. For nineteen hundred years 
there has been no such high moment as this. 
And the entry of America into this struggle 
was its supreme event. Whether as volunteers 

49 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

or selected men for the army and navy, phy- 
sicians and nurses in the Red Cross, makers 
of munitions, or producers of food, those who 
are able to take a hand in this tremendous 
struggle are to be congratulated. 

First, think of the vastness, the stupendous 
force, and the significance of this war. Behold 
how the single countries, one after another, 
fell into the crucible, until nearly the whole 
world was in the vast, fiery furnace. The 
times were mad, and every shore of humanity 
was swept by the fury of this conflagration. 
It was Armageddon indeed. 

The world is ripe for a true victory for lib- 
erty and righteousness. When human insti- 
tutions are in the melting pot, men's long- 
repressed aspirations have opportunities for 
free expression in the formulation of new sys- 
tems such as never existed before. A mighty 
process of preparation has been going on for 
years. Never was there so much knowledge, 
so widely spread, and with such means of 
still wider dissemination. And never before 
did the world have so many new and excellent 
means for remolding itself upon lines of hu- 
manity. 

For a century we had been living on such 
60 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

a level of comparative monotony that short- 
sighted people thought the soil of the earth 
was exhausted and the seed of life dead. The 
development of freedom had ceased, they said, 
and the progress of righteousness had come 
to a halt. Such is human nature that peace 
does not produce great moral triumphs. Induc- 
ing idleness, soft living, and corruption, peace 
is sometimes more deadly to spiritual interests 
than war. Poverty and toil make men strong; 
suffering and sorrow make them true; trials 
and temptations make them wise. 

But the war has already made a prodigious 
change in the world. History is now being 
made at a tremendous rate, not merely in the 
shifting of national boundary lines, but by the 
springing to life of seeds of hope planted ages 
ago. Fertilized with the rich blood of the 
world's best men, the fields of earth are pre- 
paring a new springtime. 

I do not fail to recognize the horrors and 
the sorrows of this most tragic war of his- 
tory. War has indeed become in this day the 
most frightful evil of the world. We shuddered 
at the abominable cruelties and barbarities 
perpetrated, and we felt unspeakable detesta- 
tion for their authors, but we recognized at the 

51 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

same time that this contest would decide the 
issue of the ages. We knew that when the fires 
had burned out, autocracy and imperiahsm 
would be dethroned, and that democracy and 
brotherhood would reign and bring in a new era 
of peace and progress. 

Neither do we forget the sorrows of the 
people in the stricken countries. Already vast 
multitudes of old men and women in many 
lands walk sorrowfully in funeral processions, 
mourning their dead. We cannot forget them. 
It may be their eyes are holden, not knowing 
that One walks with them who is reproving 
them for slowness of heart to believe all that 
the prophets of old have told of the divine 
method in the creation and education of man. 
But the lesson is being learned. The reve- 
lation of the prophets is meeting to-day its 
parallel revelation in the vision of a world 
learning through suffering the duty of brother- 
hood and the beauty of righteousness. There- 
fore, even in these hours of awe, we should 
lift up our hearts with the thought that "many 
prophets and kings have desired to see those 
things which we see, and have not seen them; 
and to hear those things which we hear, and 

have not heard them." 

52 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

Doubtless it is too early to reap the harvest 
sown in blood and tears. But it is not too 
early to recognize that a vast new crop of 
ideals is growing which it is our duty to culti- 
vate. Even if we cannot gather them ourselves, 
we can at least enjoy the faith that others 

"The issue of our toil shall see; 
Young children gather as their own 
The harvest that the dead had sown." 

In spite, then, of the horror and the sorrow 
of it, we must remember that for Americans 
it was a spiritual war — a war of ideas, a war 
for liberty and equality, a war for the estab- 
lishment of law and the rights of the weak, 
a war for democracy as the basis of world 
peace. Never was there, in fact, a war for 
truer spiritual ends. It was only for these 
causes that America was in the war. Nothing 
less could have brought her into it. Not for 
material reward, not for indemnity, not for con- 
quest, not for territory, not for anything save 
the high duty of succoring democracy, so 
desperately and outrageously assailed, did we 
enter this war. We went into the war only 
for the ideals of the republic, to defend before 
the world the faith of the fathers who gave 

to us this government. 

53 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

For what is this our country? What does it 
stand for? A great stretch of territory with 
wonderful resources? A vast aggregation of 
arts and industries? A hundred million of 
happy and prosperous people? Yes, our coun- 
try is all of these. But the United States of 
America is vastly more than this. This re- 
public is a scheme of life, a system of society, a 
plan of freedom, a pledge of peace, and an 
ideal of opportunity — the organized expression 
of the belief that every human being shall have 
the freest opportunity for his own development 
in accordance with the powers his God has 
given him, and that nothing shall be put in 
the way of that free development either in 
men or nations. This is what the republic 
stands for. This is America — Opportunity for 
all men, all races, all nations! It was for 
this that the fathers died, upon this foundation 
they established this government. This we 
have not forgotten and this we shall never 
forget. It is to make sure that this ideal shall 
not perish from the earth that America went 
into this war. As our President said, "God 
helping her, she can do no other." 

It was for America a spiritual war, because 
it brought her an unprecedented opportunity 

54 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

for service and sacrifice. For three years we 
stood, watching this awful contest for the Hb- 
erty and peace of the world, and doing nothing 
to help beyond selling munitions. Doing only 
this we were in danger of selling our souls. Had 
we seen it through to the end in this way and 
not taken our share of the burden, we should 
have been damned eternally. We should be 
^xda that the course of events at last made it 
our privilege to join in this struggle for freedom 
and democracy. 

"Let Freedom's land rejoice! 

Our ancient bonds are riven. 
Once more to us the eternal choice 

Of good or ill is given. 
Then praise the Lord Most High, 

Whose strength hath saved us whole. 
Who bade us choose that the flesh should die 

And not the living soul." 

We should be glad of the opportunity for 
sacrifice in such a cause. Great spiritual 
revivals come not by seeking. They are the 
product of unselfish efforts. True nobility is 
born only of service and sacrifice. America 
needed for her own soul's salvation to join the 
nations fighting for these most precious things 
of life. Every consideration of honor and 
principle required that she unite with them. 

55 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

As enduring friendships do not come of mere 
avowals of regards, but of a common struggle 
m some high and dangerous contest, so winning 
a righteous war together will, by revealing brave 
hearts to brave hearts, unite all true men in 
common aims. Such a mutual struggle will 
do more to unite the nations of freedom and 
peace than all the international treaties ever 
made. 

Two things our American fathers hoped to 
give the nations of the earth— liberty and peace. 
They believed that these two things could 
be established only through democracy. Amer- 
icans hoped always that all the nations would 
m time become democracies. We have watched 
for a century and a half, therefore, with in- 
tensest interest, the extension of liberalism and 
freedom throughout the governments of the 
world. We have indeed sympathized with all 
men everywhere who have dared to fight for 
liberty and the right of self-government; but 
It has been chiefly by words, not deeds, that 
we have expressed our sympathy. This war 
gave us the first real opportunity to help the 
other people of the world in their struggle 
for democracy. It gave us also the biggest 
opportunity we have ever had to promote the 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

second object of our fathers — the estabhsh- 
ment of world-wide peace. For only in a world 
of democracy can we hope to have permanent 
peace. 

But we faced it! We were called to sacrifice 
as well as to service. The war cost us much 
in suffering and sorrow, in precious blood and 
lives. But we remember that all the spiritual 
good that has come down to us was paid for 
by the bloody sweat and tears and suffering 
of myriads of nameless martyrs. Like a great 
gulf -stream "of moving waters at their priest- 
like task of pure ablutions round earth's hu- 
man shores," the tide of sacrifice flowed 
through the world to redeem and cleanse and 
sanctify it unceasingly. It flows now upon our 
shores. 

This redemptive work is not a single act 
in time and place. Standing as it does for the 
supreme sacrifice, the cross is indeed the Rock 
of Ages, the foundation of all that makes life 
worth living, the foundation of life itself. But 
the whole of humanity was not saved by that 
one sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is a never-ending 
and divine process, in which the inmost heart 
of the universe is constantly breaking out in 
fresh flower. The cross is indeed its ever- 

57 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

living symbol, but it is not fixed forever on 
Calvary. Borne by heroic hands at the head 
of the endless consecrated procession of man- 
kind, the cross is still marching down the ages, 
calling men to suffer and to die for their fel- 
lows. And it came to us on Good Friday, the 
sixth day of April, 1917. Did we shrink from 
taking it up.^ We did not. Where would the 
world have been if men, our elder brothers, had 
been afraid to die.^ Where would we be to-day, 
if our fathers had been afraid to die.^ 

The constant necessity of sacrifice, the eter- 
nal reappearance of the cross, its ceaseless 
reenactment in history, is the surest proof of 
man's inalienable birthright of inward freedom 
and, as we see now more plainly than ever 
before, it is the only guarantee of his outward 
liberty. For this reason we made our con- 
tribution of sacrifice, our gift of blood and 
tears and life for the good of men. 

The call to sacrifice came to Belgium, and 
she gave her sons by the thousands for the 
protection of her honor. It came to France, 
and she has given the lives of a million sons 
already, that liberty, equality, and fraternity 
may live in the world. The call came to 
Britain, and her sons on all the continents 

68 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

rallied to defend the freedom of the world. 
And the call came to us to take up the Cross 
for Freedom. 

*'0 dearest country of my heart. 

Make clean thy soul for sacrifice on Freedom's altar fire; 

For thou must suffer, thou must fight until the war-lords 

cease 
And all the peoples lift their heads in liberty and in peace." 

Think of the searching changes this war will 
make in human society. This world of men will 
never be the same again. As a result of this 
terrific cataclysm all the wrong things, the things 
without foundation and the improperly adjusted 
things — all the things that can be shaken will be 
thrown down. Laws that are not equitable will 
be altered; constitutions not founded on justice 
will be changed; monarchies having no founda- 
tion in right will be overthrown. 

This woeful emergency has already driven 
all the people of the nations together as never 
before. As a result, the world is learning to 
live a family life, in which the only thing that 
counts is service. What a magnificent exam- 
ple of united service and sacrifice these Euro- 
pean nations are setting for us! For the time 
being the people belong to their nations with 
everything they possess. The motto "Get, and 

59 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

gain, and grab" has been replaced by "Give, 
and serve, and love." 

Moreover, social distinctions are lost sight of 
in the supreme distinction of a common duty. 
Whether in uniform or out of it, whether rich 
or poor, educated or ignorant, men are esteemed 
more and more for what they are and can do, 
and not for names or positions. Property is 
regarded not so much as that which a man 
can keep to himself as that, whether in wealth, 
in capacity, or in skill, "being proper to the 
man," he can give to his country's needs. 
It is not a "Liberty Loan" they are making, 
it is a "Liberty Gift" of all they are and have. 
This is the spirit of the European peoples and 
this is the spirit we must have in America, 
if we do our duty by them and by our country. 

Now, men are already asking: "Why may 
this way of looking at the nation as one big 
family, realized under the stress of war, not 
continue when the danger is past and peace 
has come.^ Is not this, after all, the prime 
moral lesson of the war.^^ Why may not men 
give themselves and all they have to the 
service of their country? Why may not the 
comradeship of the trenches, where rich and 

poor, lord and peasant, are fighting on an 

60 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

absolute equality, continue after the war as 
a comradeship in office, farm, and factory? 
Was not the war sent to teach us how to live 
together as brethren in one great economic, 
social, and spiritual state? Shall we not learn 
the lesson and apply it in peace?" 

But the important thing is that all the 
thoughts of men will be changed. Men will 
hereafter take a more spiritual view of life 
and all that belongs to it. Twenty millions 
of men who have faced the realities of life 
and death, of time and eternity, in the trench 
or in the charge, will return to civil life in the 
allied lands. These men will have found new 
ideals and new values in life. They went in 
lightheartedly and bravely, only perceiving 
dimly the issues. But they will come home 
changed men. On the day that permanent 
peace spreads her white wings over our world 
again, these men will come home tested, 
purified, exalted, with new ideals of life and 
duty. If they have learned nothing else, 
they will have learned that freedom is better 
than riches, service better than ease, sacrifice 
better than selfishness. 

War purifies men. Men hitherto entirely 

enslaved in self-indulgence and sensual living 

61 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

will find themselves sobered, liberated, and 
redeemed. The spiritual impulses which they 
thought cast off with the clothes of childhood 
will reassert themselves, and the old ideals 
of loyalty, devotion, and sacrifice will become 
compelling again. The fire will try "every 
man's work of what sort it is," and though 
"his work shall be burned, he himself shall 
be saved, yet so as by fire." 

The sense of man's dependence on his God 
and of his duty to his brother in the trenches, 
the recognition of the Fatherhood of God and 
of the brotherhood of man, will become real 
and vital in millions of lives. Much has been 
lost in this war, but God the Father and man 
the brother will be found by multitudes. 

Men who are ready to die for humanity will 
insist on having a chance to live for humanity. 
Such men as these will certainly demand not 
merely a free world, but a just world. They 
will insist that the children of the future shall 
in their day have a better chance to live and 
be happy, and will demand that government, 
industry, education — the whole social organ- 
ism — shall be re-formed. 

The war thus unquestionably made men 

more religious in spirit and life. But what 

62 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

effect will it have on the organization of re- 
ligion, that is, on the churches? Such a bap- 
tism of fire will purify the churches as well 
as the people. But it will do more than purify, 
it will simplify and unite them. Undoubtedly, 
many phases of religion, hitherto deemed im- 
portant, will lose their interest for the men 
who face these realities. The multiplication 
of sects, the assumptions of sacerdotalism, the 
elaboration of creeds, the ritualism and sesthet- 
icism of worship, which so occupy the minds 
of some ecclesiastics, seem unreal and foolish 
to men kneeling in the trenches, thinking on 
death and eternity. But, if the testimony 
of the thinkers at the front be true, the realities 
of religion, the recognition of the Fatherhood 
of God, of communion with him, of the brother- 
hood of man and the duty to him and the 
faith that leads to self-effacement and sacrifice 
never had such a strong hold on men. 

The war has taught the people, those at 
home as well as those in the trenches, that, 
as Wells says, "only the complete simplifica- 
tion of religion to its fundamental idea, the 
world-wide realization of God as the King of 
the heart and of all mankind, will bring men 

security and happiness. The kingdom of God 

63 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

over a world-wide system of republican states 
is the only possible formula under which we 
may hope to unify and save mankind." This 
is the sane, simple, and convincing type of 
religion for which the world waits. This, we 
believe, is the only solution of the problem 
of the ages — the complete liberation and de- 
velopment of men. This is the hope that 
breaks upon our vision as we grope our way 
through this night of horrors — a setting free 
of all mankind, "a simplification of religion," 
"a kingdom of God over a world-wide system 
of republican states" — this is what our armies 
and navies fought for, and this is what we must 
verify and realize in our day. 

Such will be, must be, the spiritual victory. 
No material victory will bring the world a 
peace worth having. It is not the new map 
to be made of Europe, it is not indemnities 
or alliances, that are going to matter. The 
Vienna Congress made a new map of Europe, 
and the terrible war was the result. The 
victory over Napoleon was a material victory, 
but a spiritual defeat for Europe. If this war 
is not to be a mere overture to another and 
more dreadful war, a material victory must 

not satisfy us. It is not enough to defeat 

64 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

imperialism and militarism; we must destroy 
throughout the world the spirit of which 
imperialism and militarism are the embodi- 
ment. For these ideas have no geographical 
limit. They are indifferent to all political 
organizations. They are common through all 
belligerents. There is danger that even we 
may become subject to the same wicked am- 
bitions. Ours must, therefore, be a spiritual 
victory, a victory of ideas, a victory of peace 
and good will: a victory of love, not of hate; 
a victory of gifts, not of spoils; a victory that 
shall not rob any nation of a single right, 
but shall give all men the blessings of freedom 
and brotherhood. 

It is to affirm a human bond stronger than 
any racial tie, stronger than any national 
union, or any confession of faith, that we 
went to war. It is not for the Fatherland 
of any one people, but for the Patrie des Ames 
— the Fatherhood of All-Souls, that we fought. 
It is to establish the brotherhood of all men, 
that communion of souls which is the essence of 
all religion, that we are contending. It is the 
idea of the larger communion, enlarged to em- 
brace all men in all lands, which is already emerg- 
ing from the welter and sacrifice of these days. 

65 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

The war was, of course, won on battlefields, 
but the war against militarism was already 
won in the domain of the spirit. What else 
meant the entrance of America, the revolution 
in Russia, the declarations of the neutral na- 
tions, if not an outpouring of the desire of man- 
kind for a more perfect realization of the 
brotherhood of man? What else mean these 
voices beginning to be heard above the din of 
war to which men everywhere are listening, if 
not a new dispensation of peace and good will? 
Viviani in France, Lloyd George in Britain, 
Woodrow Wilson in America, are merely the 
voices of their people, demanding liberty and 
fraternity "in the widest commonalty spread." 
In all countries the builders of the new world 
order are emerging from the darkness; another 
and mightier army is organizing, the army of the 
rebuilders of the world ! Already the war of 
ideas is won! The spiritual victory is ours! 

These are some of the reasons why, shocking 

as the times were, we should feel it a privilege 

to have lived in them. These days are so 

fraught with vast possibilities that while we 

recognize that frightful dangers are lurking 

within them, nothing is too great to hope as 

their fruition. It seems, verily, as if God had 

66 



A SPIRITUAL VICTORY 

gathered up all the glorious ideals, dreams, 
hopes, and visions of men out of all the centuries 
and was holding them out in overflowing hands 
to the people of this age as the reward of right- 
eous war. 

The future of this world assuredly belongs 
to the people who act truly and hold out 
bravely in this awful struggle. In such times 
no one dares live lightly. Each one of us has 
a definite and serious task to perform. Act- 
ing our parts thus in the fierce spotlight of 
this day, we should be inspired by the thought 
that the "choir invisible of those immortal 
dead," who poured out their blood so freely 
for these ideals, is watching now from above 
the clouds to see how we act our part in this 
great drama. Shall we fail to act our parts 
as they did theirs? 

Shall we not, rather, praying the blessing 
of God and consecrating ourselves for any 
sacrifice, take our places in the army of these, 
our own loved ones here and those in Bel- 
gium, in France, in Italy or wherever they 
may be, who have fought for the honor of 
the past, the salvation of the present, and 
the hope of the future? 



67 



IV 

INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIAL- 
ISM— WHICHP^ 

As I stand before this body of students of 
all nations, I am deeply impressed with the 
thought that to you, and to those like you in 
your home lands, the civilized world must 
look for salvation from the confusion that 
threatens it to-day. The students of to-day 
must save the world of to-morrow. Although 
the happenings of the last few years do not 
encourage us much to trust to the professors 
and intellectuals to determine the great issues 
of civilization, we still hope that on the mor- 
row, after the passion of the hour is past, 
reason and conscience will rule again, and 
scholars will decide the destinies of the nations. 
We must still believe that we can trust the 
interests of the world to men who, like you, 
are seeking sincerely to know the truth that 
is to make free all the people of the earth. 

1 Address before the national convention of the A .ociation of Cosmopoli- 
tan Clubs, the Corda Fratres of Europe, at Columbus, Ohio. These Clubs 
are made up of university students devoted to the cause of intemational- 
iam and peace. 

68 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

If we cannot trust men such as these gathered 
here to-night, whom can we trust to save the 
world from destruction? 

As I look into the faces of these young people 
of many countries another thought comes 
strongly to my mind. You young men from 
all the nations seem to me to represent those 
other young heroes now lying in the trenches 
upon a hundred fields, or sailing upon the 
seven seas, defenders of their respective lands 
in this unholy war. What a noble host they 
are! Who will deny their heroism, or, what- 
ever we may think of the causes for which 
some of them fight, deprive them of their 
glory? We all recognize that these young men 
from different nations, though opposing each 
other with all their splendid energies, are 
moved to this conflict by a common idea. 
Each thinks he is fighting for his country's 
salvation; each is actuated by the same feeling 
of patriotism, and each, therefore, has our 
hearty admiration. The young Servian, fight- 
ing for the independence of his country; the 
Austrian, striving for the extension of his land; 
the Russian, hastening to the aid of his brother 
Slav; the German, battling to advance the 

Fatherland; the Englishman, fighting for honor 

69 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

and the right of small states; the Frenchman, 
resisting the robber of his home land; and 
bravest of all, the Belgian, fighting the Teu- 
tonic colossus for the very life of his country 
— all these sincere young men are patriots, 
all are heroes in their places. 

You join with me in acclaiming the splendid 
spirit of these young warriors. Whether we 
approve their course or not, we admire their 
courage and heroism. We have no denun- 
ciation for these noble young heroes. It is 
not they who have brought this plague upon 
the world. The guilt does not rest upon 
them, but upon the teachers who have taught 
them false doctrines and upon their govern- 
ments which have long been plotting to bring 
about this war. 

But why this conflict of patriotisms.^ How 

can we explain the fact that all these earnest 

young men, now fighting for their native lands, 

are actuated by the same motive, patriotism.'^ 

Holding as they do a common ideal, how can 

they thus fight each other .^ Is not this a 

situation worthy of our consideration? Is there 

not something wrong about this thing we call 

patriotism, which makes worthy young men of 

common ideals strive to murder each other? 

70 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

For ages we have been taught that war 
exalts the virtue of sacrifice, and is, therefore, 
a necessary part of the discipHne of the hu- 
man race. Luzzatti said the other day: "In 
this universal disaster patriotism alone tri- 
umphs," implying that the patriotism de- 
veloped by this war made it all worth while. 
Certainly patriotism is splendid; it is the only 
splendid thing in this war; all else is horror. 
But even conceding this, we cannot agree with 
Luzzatti that it is good that the demon of 
international war should be let loose on the 
world, to the end that the pure and simple 
sentiment, love of country, shall be the better 
illustrated and understood by men. Is it 
indeed true that love of country can grow 
in our hearts only through the hatred of other 
peoples and through the wholesale murder of 
those who sacrifice themselves in the defense 
of their own lands .^ Is there not in this theory 
a ferocious absurdity that moves the very 
depths of our being? No, this is a hellish 
doctrine; love of country does not demand that 
we hate and slay all those good and faithful 
souls who also love their countries. True 
love of country grows out of our love for our 
fellows, for all humanity. It begins with love 

71 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

for those next to us, but extends to all good 
men everywhere. True patriotism should there- 
fore lead us to respect the worthy men and 
women of all lands. Instead of leading us to 
hate them, true patriotism should teach us 
to honor them and to seek to unite ourselves 
with them in striving for the common good 
of men. 

No, it is not true patriotism, then, that has 
brought on this war. These youths who are 
fighting so bravely did not provoke this war. 
The monster responsible for this carnage is 
the monster of imperialism. It is the will-to- 
pride and the will-to-power which seek to 
subdue all, to absorb all, which will suffer 
no greatness except their own, that have 
caused this war. Imperialism is the menace 
of the whole world to-day. It is the curse, 
not of Germany alone, but of all the nations 
who put their own weKare above the general 
good of mankind. All the ambitious nations 
have to a greater or less degree an imperial- 
ism of their own, whether feudal, financial, 
or military. Imperialism is everywhere the 
same terrible octopus seeking the best blood 
of the peoples of all lands for its own nourish- 
ment. This spirit of imperialism we must 

72 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

destroy wherever we find it, and in order to 
do this we must educate the young men of all 
nations in the higher patriotism, which shall 
see in the good of all men the highest good 
of their own nation. 

William James has told us that if we would 
abolish war, we must first find some substitute, 
some moral equivalent, which will give to men 
opportunities to make an equal, or even a 
nobler, sacrifice of themselves than they can 
make in brutal war. It cannot be true that 
there is no better employment for the pa- 
triotism of one people than the destruction of 
another. Can we not sacrifice ourselves for 
the good of mankind without killing our 
neighbors.^ Surely, there is enough misery 
in this world to fight without adding the 
misery of war! Why not conscript our young 
men for an army to fight the evils of our pres- 
ent society, or to lessen the toil and pain and 
hardness which nature imposes on most of 
her children? Why not sacrifice ourselves for 
human improvement rather than for human 
destruction? 

The nations are more closely bound to- 
gether than ever before in the history of the 

world. United by the many civilizing forces, 

73 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

trade, science, literature, and art, and by the 
physical appliances of intercourse, railways, 
telegraphs, and mails, which are at once the 
cause and effect of other and stronger spiritual 
bonds, the vital interests of the peoples are 
largely common. The business and working 
men of all countries realize more clearly every 
day that these common interests are more 
important than their few remaining national 
antagonisms. But this war has cut squarely 
across a rapidly growing international organ- 
ization and has shown us in an appalling 
manner that when patriotism is appealed to, 
kings and emperors can still count, even in 
this twentieth century since the coming of 
the Prince of Peace, upon an overwhelming 
response from their young men. 

Did these international bonds, these forces 
for union — literature, science, commerce, and 
communication — all disappear at once upon 
the call to war, or do they still exist, held 
for the present in abeyance? As a matter of 
fact, we know that most of the commerce 
and communication are still real and vital. 
The international postal union, the railways 
and telegraphs, are still working, and all these 

other bonds are ready to resume operations 

74 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

at once on the close of the war. The people 
of all nations are intensely eager to set them 
to work again. The intellectual forces of 
internationalism, art, literature, and science, 
are represented powerfully here to-night. The 
bonds of internationalism have not yet all 
been broken even between belligerents, and our 
faith leads us to believe that the international 
mind, against which the national mind is now 
so strongly arrayed, will again erelong pre- 
vail, and that all men will be reunited in a 
brotherhood of nations. 

No doubt there are those in Germany and 
in Austria who desire and intend, if possible, 
to destroy internationalism and to perpetuate 
hatred and war between the nations as a 
means of advancing their own selfish ends. 
But we believe that there are still those in 
every nation who, like the members of this 
Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, are deter- 
mined, in spite of this catastrophe — ^yes, be- 
cause of this catastrophe itself — to work for 
the internationalism which shall bring a per- 
manent peace among the nations, and for a 
basis of cooperation in the great work of 
civilization which shall engage the worthy 

energies of all peoples. Such internationally 

75 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

minded persons believe that cooperation, not 
conflict, peace, not war, is the true destiny 
of nations. 

To state the matter in a different way, 
back of this physical war among the nations, 
there is another war, a war between two ideas, 
a war between the idea of nationalism on the 
one side, and the idea of internationalism on 
the other. This deeper struggle is at present 
an intellectual and spiritual one, but we in- 
tend to see to it, do we not, that this war 
shall continue until the basis of a permanent 
peace is established in this world. Thousands 
of generous youths have, we believe, gone to 
battle in this present war in the belief that 
they are making war upon war, that they 
are fighting against militarism and imperial- 
ism, in behalf of peace and internationalism. 
Though we may think their methods wrong, 
we claim all such as our allies in this war on 
war. Yes, we call to you to-night, ye brave 
young heroes in the trenches on both sides. 
Though you know it not yet, if you are fight- 
ing against war, you were made to be our 
brethren, and we reach out our hands to you 
and hail you Corda Fratres! 

I am glad to have the opportunity, there- 
76 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IIVIPERIALISM? 

fore, to discuss with you, representatives of 
the students of many lands, the subject of 
the true patriotism. If our conception of 
patriotism leads to such world chaos as we 
see to-day, certainly there must be something 
wrong with it. Nothing is more needed than 
a careful study of the philosophy of patriotism 
and of the prevailing doctrine of nationalism. 
At the present time we find everywhere the 
most confused notions as to the duties of na- 
tions to each other, and the relation of na- 
tionality to humanity at large. Our theory 
of patriotism should be not a mere abstraction 
of philosophy to be discussed in lecture halls. 
It is too vitally practical for that. Never was 
the supreme importance of the correct view 
of patriotism better illustrated than to-day. 
Must we not believe that if these noble young 
men of the different armies had been cor- 
rectly instructed as to what constitutes true 
patriotism, the nations of the world would not 
now be engaged in this greatest of wars.^ 
This war is simply the wholesale murder of 
the flower of the manhood of the nations in 
the name of patriotism. If such slaughter of 
our best is necessary for the salvation of man 
kind in this period of the world, where then 

77 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

is our boasted moral progress? W^here is our 
Christianity? Are we better than the savages 
of five thousand years ago? As a matter of 
fact, the peoples of the world are not the 
murderous fiends they appear to be. They 
do not in their consciences believe in these 
methods. They do not practice them in their 
private lives, and they do not believe that 
they are necessary to the preservation and the 
development of the nations to-day. 

What, then, is the error? The answer to 
the query is not hard to find. The error is 
that we take our ethics from two entirely 
different sources, according as it has to do 
with individual or with national life. Our 
individual morality we take, or pretend to 
take, from the Sermon on the Mount. Our 
national morality we take from paganism. 
When once we have crossed the national 
frontier, our neighbor ceases to be our fellow- 
man and our brother, and becomes at once 
an alien and an enemy. What was vice in 
private life becomes virtue in international re- 
lations; what was brutality in private life be- 
comes bravery in war. Deceit and lying, 
which would dishonor the private man, are 
dignified into diplomacy, and science and en- 

78 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

gineering skill are utilized for butchery. Covet- 
ousness of the property of others, which in 
private life would be recognized as a horrible 
crime, becomes a political virtue, a legitimate 
national ambition. In a word, collective 
egotism has become a virtue, and national 
lust has become devotion to the fatherland. 
A cynic has parodied this continental theory 
of national morality in these terms: 

"Ye have heard how in old times it was 
said: Blessed are the meek, for they shall 
inherit the earth; but I say unto you. Blessed 
are the valiant, for they shall make the earth 
their throne. And ye have heard it said: 
Blessed are the poor in spirit; but I say unto 
you. Blessed are the great in soul, for they 
shall enter into Valhalla. And ye have heard 
that He said also: Blessed are the peace- 
makers, but I say unto you. Blessed are the 
war-makers, for they shall be called, if not 
the children of God, the children of Odin, 
who is our Teuton God." 

What, then, is true patriotism? So far from 
being the simple thing that it would seem, 
patriotism has become, in these last days, very 
complex and contradictory in character. The 

fact that it is so perverted is due in large 

79 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

measure to the sophistication of our modern 
philosophers. The moral perversion which has 
led us into these frightful conditions is based, 
in part, on an intellectual confusion. Let us 
try, then, to analyze the principle we call 
patriotism and to distinguish the different 
elements it contains. 

Primitive patriotism, the love of home and 
country, has its source in that most beautiful 
of sentiments, mother love. A powerful prompt- 
ing of nature makes us love the place where 
we were born. It is instinct, habit, association, 
not a moral principle, which produces this ele- 
mental love of our native land. Nor do we 
love our country because it is beautiful or 
comfortable — the frozen mountains of the 
North and the hot deserts of Sahara are 
both dear to men who call these home — 
but we love our country simply because it is 
our native land, the soil from which we sprang 
and which nurtured us. Such is the feeling 
of the individual in a primitive state. 

As men begin to form communities and to 
lose the point of view of the individual, pa- 
triotism becomes the instinct of self-preserva- 
tion. It is the collective instinct to defend 
the motherhome and the fatherland from the 

80 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

foreign invader. It is the same natural reaction 
which prompts the bee to sting the intruder 
in his hive, or the Indian to slay the trespasser 
on his hunting ground. This instinctive feel- 
ing may, of course, lead to brave deeds, just 
as an attack upon her cubs causes the tigress 
to assault furiously the hunter, or as any 
interference with his wife prompts the savage 
to slay the violater of his home. Such feelings 
are noble and such acts are heroic. But it 
too often happens that these feelings are ap- 
pealed to by wicked leaders, and men are led 
into the most flagrant violations of right in 
the name of patriotism and self-defense. The 
naturally noble feeling behind the act does not 
always make the act a righteous one. In the 
belief that they are defending home and coun- 
try men may be induced to invade and rob 
their neighbors. As was said by a renowned 
statesman, patriotism is often "the last refuge 
of the scoundrel." In the history of nations 
it has often been the excuse for the most 
infamous brutality, for the most cruel viola- 
tion of the rights of others. 

In our modern complicated civilization, how- 
ever, patriotism is much more than this prim- 
itive and instinctive feeling. Mixed in it are 

81 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

many other elements which give it a very 
complex character. This modern patriotism is 
not only the native love of the man for the 
land that gave him birth and nourished him, 
it is not only the instinctive reaction against 
the invader of the home or community; pa- 
triotism, as popularly understood to-day, has 
become an abstract principle, an ideal of public 
duty, which should be the noblest and most 
comprehensive of virtues. This true patriotism 
is founded in intellect and supported by the 
love of mankind as a whole. It is the ideal 
of this higher patriotism that I present to you 
to-night. 

In order to understand this higher patriotism, 
it is necessary to study further the foundations 
of the modern European conception of na- 
tionality and especially of the grounds for its 
defense. When we try to separate the natural 
and instinctive elements in patriotism from the 
unnatural or developed elements, we encounter 
serious diflficulties. One of the first of these 
is the question of what constitutes nationality. 
What is the moral foundation of nationality .^^ 
What is a nation, and what is our duty to it.^ 
Should we consider the nation as an absolute 
being, a kind of personality with a morality of 

82 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

its own, as some modern philosophers teach us 
we should? Is not the nation often a mere geo- 
graphical expression, a territory to be defended 
against invasion, or to be the basis of action 
against the people of another territory? More- 
over, is the state based merely on physical 
force? Is patriotism nothing more than the 
"will-to-power"? Why, I say, should the moral 
law direct and guide us in private life and cease 
to command us in international life? Does the 
right to claim the sacrifice of our lives in times 
of danger give our country the right to command 
that we surrender our conscience? I should 
like to discuss briefly two answers that are 
made nowadays to these questions. I shall 
describe these as the answer of the politician 
and the answer of the casuist, and shall try to 
prove to you that the answer of the former is 
superficial and immoral, and that the answer of 
the latter, when not vague and unreal, is posi- 
tively pagan. 

The answer of the politician, based, as it is, 
entirely upon the commercial needs of the 
nation, can be easily disposed of. He argues 
that we must go to war in order to expand 
our sphere of influence. Though he may say 

in poetic language that his nation is merely 

83 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

seeking a "place in the sun," he is really seek- 
ing commercial and military advantage. Such 
statesmanship, moreover, strives to seize new 
territories and to establish colonies, for the 
sake of the profit to be gained by exploiting 
them. 

The assumption underlying the casuist's doc- 
trine of absolute patriotism is that a people 
can realize its highest moral ideals only in the 
state and through the state, that only in the 
state can men move, live, and have their full- 
est being. This conception is nothing new in 
the world. It is merely a restatement of a 
very old idea derived from a time when the 
ancient state absorbed all the activities of its 
citizens, industrial, intellectual, and spiritual, 
from the time when the state was, indeed, 
the source of all knowledge, morality, religion, 
and art. This German idea of the state is 
only the pagan conception of patriotism and 
nationality revived and clothed in philosophical 
cant. It was the idea of Nebuchadnezzar, of 
Alexander, of Pericles, and of Caesar. It was 
the system broken up by Christianity when 
it set man free by teaching man that he is the 
son of God, and thus established the lasting 

struggle between the flesh and the spirit that 

84 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

has been going on ever since. Jesus taught 
the world through the voices of Peter and Paul 
that God is the Father of Gentile and Jew, 
and that all men are brethren. . Since every 
man is free to work out his own salvation, 
every race and nation must be free to develop 
its own peculiar characteristics in accordance 
with its own opportunities. 

The blow which Christianity struck to the 
pagan idea has been repeated by modem 
science. Science teaches us now that so far 
is the state from being the foundation of 
morality that all moral progress has, in fact, 
been obtained in opposition to national law, 
and so far is the national state from absorbing 
all our activities, that, as a matter of fact, 
nearly all the higher activities of man, science, 
literature, religion, and art, are to-day not 
national at all, but international. As the 
years go by this becomes increasingly true of 
more elements of civilization. 

The so-called philosophical idea, the old 
pagan idea, provides far too narrow a founda- 
tion for true patriotism. We believe now that 
each race has its inherent excellences and 
virtues, that every nation has its opportunity 
and its duty, and that every culture has noble 

85 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

elements to contribute to the civilization of 

the world. This, then, is our thesis: no nation 

has a right to impose its culture upon any 

other people on the theory that it is superior. 

The Germans have no right to impose their 

culture upon the Poles; the English have no 

right to impose their culture upon the Hindus; 

/the Japanese have no right to impose their 

culture upon the Chinese; and the Russians 

have no right to impose theirs upon the other 

Slavs. Every people has the right, because 

of this difference in talent and opportunity, 

to develop its own culture in its own way, in 

accordance with the conditions of its own 

environment. This is the Christian doctrine, 

this is the scientific doctrine, and we must 

defend it to the last if we would have liberty 

and peace in this world. 

As this is the heart of our subject, let us 

consider a little more carefully the grounds of 

this contention that each race has the right 

to develop its own culture. In the first place, 

we affirm that no such wide and permanent 

superiority of any race exists, and that, even 

if it did exist, that race would not be justified 

in imposing its culture on others against their 

will. History teaches us that every assumption 

86 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

of superiority of one race or nation over all 
others is purely subjective; nobody believes it, 
except the people who affirm it for them- 
selves. Every such assumption of a single 
race or people is at once challenged by every 
other. Each people is naturally proud of its 
national achievements. The Chinese, Japanese, 
as well as EngHsh, Russians, French, Italians, 
Germans, and even the Turks, all boast of 
their superior culture. If one culture is the 
best, who shall decide which one.? Will these 
philosophers dare say that the merits of in- 
tellectual and spiritual culture should be de- 
cided by a contest of brute force? That is 
practically what the German says. 

Shall we judge a people by their attainments 
in science, by their works in painting and 
music, or by their morals and their religion? 
No nation in the history of the world has ever 
been found to be superior to all other nations 
in all of these respects. The fact is, as a result 
of natural law, we generally find that where 
one nation is superior in one of these respects, 
it is inferior in another. As the result of the 
universal law of differentiation in nature, races 
of men differ in talent, and the same races 
develop different abilities under different con- 

37, 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

ditions. Nature intends that each shall differ 
from the other, so that one people will be su- 
perior in one way and another people in some 
other way. Count Von Buelow himself said 
that the German is, as the result of his nature, 
inferior in political ability to the Englishman. 
If, then, we make political ability the cri- 
terion, as we might well do, in deciding which 
nation should govern the world, then, according 
to Von Buelow, the Anglo-Saxon should rule 
us all. Believing that our Anglo-Saxon fathers 
gave the world in the American constitution 
the best program for self-government mankind 
has yet seen, we might be tempted to join in 
this conclusion. 

But even if the superiority of one nation 
over all others could be proved, as it cannot 
be, this does not justify that nation in at- 
tempting to impose its culture by power of 
arms on another people. Because the German 
is superior to the Pole, he is not justified in 
depriving the Pole of his land, his language, 
and his liberty. History shows that in con- 
quering the Czech, the Austrian does not and 
cannot improve him, but by this very act 
debases himself below the level of the Czech. 

The experience of Austria since she conquered 

88 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

the Czech, the Pole, and the dozen or more 
other races she has attempted to govern, is 
complete proof of what we here assert — that 
superior culture cannot be imparted by physical 
force. Her deterioration as a nation now 
approaching its dissolution is directly traceable 
to a wicked imperialistic policy based upon 
this false conception of patriotism and of 
nationality. Does Germany want to run the 
same career.^ If she does, hers will surely be 
the same end. 

It is evident, therefore, that the principle 
of nationality must be justified on other 
grounds than the "will-to-power" of the people 
supposed to have the superior culture. We 
believe in the principle of nationality properly 
limited, but the ultimate reason for the exist- 
ence of individual nations lies not in the su- 
periority of any one nation. We believe in 
the principle of nationality not because any 
one nation has all the virtues, for this is never 
true; we believe in nationality for the very 
opposite reason; that is, because every nation 
has its peculiar virtues which deserve to be 
cultivated. The Creator made this a world of 
diversity. Diversity is the universal law of 
nature, and integration and differentiation are 

89 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

the most important processes of evolution. 
There is diversity of nationaHty for the same 
reason that there is diversity of individuality 
and personality. Just as we have many lands 
with different geographic features, one made up 
of mountains, and another of plains, one pas- 
toral and artistic, another agricultural and 
scientific, so we have many peoples with dif- 
ferent characteristics. As no land can produce 
all the fruits of the earth, so no single nation 
can produce all the fruits of culture. This 
law applies to the political world just as it 
does to the moral. God has made us different 
men, with diverse languages, manners, cus- 
toms, and arts, in order that each might fill 
a place and do a peculiar work in the world. 
For each should react upon all others, and so 
make all nobler and better. Each nation, 
therefore, has its own right in its own place. 
Each, by virtue of its position and intellectual 
powers, its agricultural, industrial, and social 
activities, has developed a culture of its own, 
limited, no doubt, and necessarily imperfect, 
but its own. For this very reason, because 
of these limitations and imperfections, and in 
order to do a diverse work for a complex 

humanity, as many nations as possible should 

90 



INTERNATIONALISM OR IMPERIALISM? 

be allowed to retain and develop their indi- 
viduality and personality. We believe in 
nationalities, then, not in order that all nations 
shall be of one culture, not in order that there 
may be one great empire, but for the very 
opposite reason, that there may be many 
nations with many cultures, each comple- 
mentary to the other. 

True patriotism is the very opposite of this 
evil jingoism of the Germans. The ideal 
nationality is born not of pride, but of hu- 
mility. Nationality is not based on the su- 
periority of any one people, but upon the 
limitations common to all humanity. Nation- 
ality does not justify the supremacy of the 
strong. On the contrary, it imposes and pre- 
supposes a scrupulous regard for the equal 
rights of the weak, who may be as superior 
in moral culture as they are inferior in mil- 
itary power. The nation, like the individual, 
is entitled to influence only by virtue of its 
goodness, not by virtue of its might, not by 
its "will-to-power," but by its will-to-service. 

This selfish theory of nationality is thus 
fundamentally wrong. Man does not exist 
for the nation, but the nation exists for the 
man. Nationality is a means and condition 

91 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

of human advance, but it is humanity which 
is the end; and not merely one part of human- 
ity, but all humanity. "Above the nations 
is humanity." 



92 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

What will the world be now the war is 
over? W^ill the result be worth the stupendous 
price we have paid? Will all be waste and 
chaos, or will it be an ordered world fit to 
live in? Materially and physically speaking, 
the world is seriously affected. Vast desola- 
tion exists in many places. But what of 
the moral and the spiritual condition of the 
world? What about liberty, democracy, hu- 
manity, and righteousness? What will the 
war bring us of these? In short, what will 
be the characteristics of the moral and spiritual 
world. 

In the May, 1918, number of the Atlantic 
Monthly there was a remarkable article en- 
titled "The New Death," in which the writer 
analyzed the idea of death as it appeared in 
the letters and lives of the young heroes who 
had been facing it for four years in France. 
The old death, which we have tried to shun 
all our days and to conceal when it came, is 

revealed by these latest prophets, says this 

93 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

writer, as "a mere portal of an eternal pro- 
gression," and the immediate result should be 
"the consecration of all living." "As we step 
into the future, we test our ground for its 
spiritual foundation. If our faith is to lead 
us where our dead boys have gone, it must 
be a faith built like theirs, on spiritual values. 
This is the lesson that the supreme splendor 
of youth has taught to a moribund world. 
To construct a new world on the faith that 
their word and their sacrifice attest is the 
sole expression permitted to our mourning; it 
is the sole monument beautiful enough to be 
their memorial." 

The "new death" which our writer discusses 
so eloquently is thus the opening of a new 
life for the world. Through death the world 
comes once again to its resurrection; into a 
life richer, more abundant, and more perfect 
— a life eternal. The real teaching of these 
prophets of the trenches is therefore not of 
a "new death," but of a "new life." 

Let us consider some characteristics of the 

new life of the world that is to come out of 

death. Let us think not of death, but of life 

— of the new life for America, the new life 

for you, its heirs, the new life for the afflicted 

94 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

peoples of Belgium, of France — of that new 
life for all the world, for which we are willing 
to give our lives. 

In the first place, what will be the character 
of the new world politically? What of the 
new state that is to be? It is evident that 
"the Lord hath a controversy with the na- 
tions" to-day. What is the meaning of this 
tremendous controversy? 

Let us begin with confession. The war 
marked the failure of our old civilization, for 
that old civilization brought forth a calamity 
that threatened to engulf the whole world 
with the black night of barbarism. For the 
moment chaos, brutality, and unreason reigned 
supreme. To prevent this calamity from ever 
occurring again there must be a new political 
order, a new world state. 

What shall this new state be? We, of 
America, believe it will be a democracy, made 
up of equal members cooperating for mutual 
benefit. The old state, which at first was the 
community organized for the purpose of se- 
curing law and order — a mere policeman — has 
in these modern times become the guardian 
of all our economic, political, and social inter- 
ests as well as of oiu* lives and property. The 

95 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

result has been an increasing centralization of 
power in the state, and a subordination of the 
interests of the individual to the welfare of 
the group. Out of this has grown the big 
illusion of the day — the German conception that 
the state has a sacrosanct character before 
which the individual must bow in abject hu- 
mility. A learned German scholar, long a 
resident but never a citizen of this country, 
comparing the German theory of government 
with ours, said, "For the German the state is 
not for the individual, but the individuals are 
for the state." "And," he adds, significantly, 
"the very scope of the German idea can afford 
no other sphere than the world itself." 

This is the theory of the state that we 
fought, the theory that would make the indi- 
vidual a mere cog in a machine more remorse- 
less and more insatiate than all the inhuman 
Tamer lanes of history. This is the reason why 
we said that if Germany won, freedom would 
perish. As for us, then, we declare "we must 
be free or die who speak the tongue that 
Shakespeare spoke and hold the faith that 
Milton held." Our mission as Americans, as 
defenders of individual liberty, is to bring a 
moral realism into the state. The citizen is 

96 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

not for the state, but the state is for the 
citizen. 

This does not mean that the state is not 
necessary or that it does not possess author- 
ity. The state is necessary and it must have 
authority. It is necessary because no society 
can cohere without organization, and it must 
have authority in order to do its work. The 
state possesses, however, no authority except 
that wilHngly conceded to it and vested in it 
by those who constitute it. It is, as our great 
Declaration says, a "government by the con- 
sent of the governed." 

The authority of the state is further limited 
by the universal moral order. There is a 
single universal moral order in this world. 
It is one and the same order for all men every- 
where. The crime of Germany is that she 
professes to believe that the state is a law unto 
itself, that it can do no wrong. The result of 
this doctrine is to shatter the moral universe 
and introduce a pluralism of moral orders, 
which leads to desperate and permanent chaos. 

History is, first and last, a record of the 
operations of the law of moral sequences. The 
one sure thing in this world is the principle of 
moral continuity which links up the sowing 

97 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

of evil with the harvest of tragedy. "What 
a man sows, that shall he also reap," is just 
as true of nations as it is of individuals. The 
chief sin of the times is that we do not apply 
the moral code among nations as we some- 
times do among men. As Lord Morley has 
said: "Not only is truth made a subordinate 
department of daily politics, but there is 
something in the atmosphere of traditional 
statecraft which paralyzes the moral sense. 
The terms alter, but the issue is constant — 
force against right, reasons of state against 
principles of ethics; policy against justice and 
truth; serpent against dove, fox against lamb; 
narrow and local expediency against the broad 
and the eternal." 

Now we see how Germany has carried these 
abominable principles to their logical, their cruel 
conclusion. The Ten Commandments do not 
apply between Germans and outsiders. General 
Von der Goltz, for example, formulated and 
promulgated Ten Iron Commandments for his 
German soldiers. "Grow hard, warriors," reads 
his new Iron Commandment. "The soldier 
must be hard. It is better to let a hundred 
women and children belonging to the enemy 
die than to let a single German soldier suffer." 

98 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

In modern Prussia the Beatitudes have become 
a derision, the Sermon on the Mount a laugh- 
ing-stock. Such is the result of this hideous 
theory that the state can do no wrong. 

Now we believe that a new type of state 
will be established in the new world which 
our boys conquered for us, and the founda- 
tions on which this state will be built will 
be not might, but right; they will be not 
authority and efficiency, but good will and 
justice. We cannot have peace in the world 
anywhere without good will, and good will 
cannot long continue without justice, and 
justice cannot prevail unless there is righteous- 
ness among the nations as well as among their 
individual members. 

Yet all history shows that individuals, classes, 
and nations have been under the constant 
illusion that they could get good for themselves 
through despoiling or exploiting other indi- 
viduals, classes, or nations; that they can get 
something from others for which they do not 
give or seek to give an equivalent return. 
From this illusion has also sprung the devilish 
belief that wrong should be repaid by wrong, 
that we may remedy evil by returning evil. 

That is the doctrine of hell. 

99 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

This line of thought brings us to the very 
heart of the social problem — the problem of 
the relations of men and groups of men to 
one another. The true formula on which to 
organize all human relations is the formula of 
service. Only as the ideal of mutual service, 
of full reciprocity in conferring mutual benefits, 
is realized by men in their living together, 
is there a chance for stable and harmonious 
and worthwhile human living. 

The only cure for injustice is righteousness. 
"The work of righteousness shall be peace; 
and the eflPect of righteousness quietness and 
assurance forever." If, therefore, we would 
save the nations from eternal wars and de- 
struction, we must "look for a new world in 
which dwelleth righteousness." Such a world 
our boys have conquered for us. 

But war alone cannot end war. Might does 
not rule the real world, the world of souls; 
mankind must finally be governed by the 
moral law. No mere military defeat of au- 
tocracy can purge the nations of greed of 
power, of the lust of conquest, of the pride of 
mastery. We must, indeed, destroy autocracy; 
and we must do justice to its victims, including 

its own oppressed at home. But we must do 

100 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

more than this: the will to power, which was 
the cause of this war, must be replaced by the 
will to love. 

If this be a moral universe, as we believe 
it to be, then the Europe which conducted its 
affairs on the basis of lying, intrigue, and 
spoliation could not possibly have escaped the 
hell into which it was plunged. It might, by 
increasing armaments, have safe-guarded itself 
temporarily against the results of its wicked- 
ness, but its mad struggle in the vicious circle 
of repeated intrigue and chicanery and of 
growing mutual menace, was doomed from the 
beginning to bring on a terrible catastrophe. 

These tremendous tragedies of history are 
thus the self-vindication of the moral order 
against those who deny it, in the conduct of 
the affairs of the nations. The most awful 
thing about it is that the moral stupor of 
the statesmen plunges whole multitudes of 
innocent people into death and destruction. 
The statesmen arrange the game, fix the prizes, 
and order the feast that is to follow, but the 
people pay the price of it all with their blood 
and their lives. 

At such a time as this we must try to think 
clearly and speak plainly. The curse of the 

101 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

old statecraft was its atheism, its denial of 
God. This atheistic statesmanship has again 
and again plunged the world into misery and 
destruction. From Babylon to Berlin the de- 
velopment of the race was interrupted con- 
stantly by catastrophes which were the di- 
rect result of this atavistic faith in fraud and 
force. It is the atheism which ignores this 
overruling power for righteousness, that leaves 
the moral order out of its reckoning and thinks 
it can escape the consequences of evil doing by 
a combination of clever statesmanship and of 
military power. It is this atheism which turned 
all Europe into an intolerable inferno. 

I affirm, therefore, that our whole argument 
falls to the ground if there be no God. If 
there is no God, there is no universal moral 
order. In a world without a God and without 
a moral order the only law that pays is the law 
of the jungle. The Germans are right: the 
only statesmanship for a world in which there 
is no God of righteousness is this combination 
of craft and force, of treaty-breaking and mil- 
itary conquest, which we saw so dreadfully 
illustrated in their course in bringing on and 
in carrying on their hellish war. 

But our reading of history teaches us that 

102 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

there is a God of righteousness, there is a moral 
order that governs nations as well as men. 
This is the teaching not only of past history 
but also of present history. It is the teaching 
of the events that are happening in this very 
war. Abominable and frightful as are most 
of the occurrences of this war, there are some 
phases of it which ought to give us much en- 
couragement. It is true that we saw on the 
one side Germany and her allies carrying out 
their hideous doctrine that the end justifies 
the means, that treaties are only ^'scraps of 
paper," that might makes right, that necessity 
knows no law, that the earth rightfully belongs 
to the nation that has power to take it, that 
terrorism is a fine military measure, and the 
murder of innocent women and children legit- 
imate warfare. But on the other side we saw 
a splendid array of nations, including almost 
all the other peoples of the earth, united in 
the defense of liberty, of the rights of indi- 
viduals, races and peoples to determine their 
own destiny, of the integrity of a moral law 
between both men and nations and of the 
principles of righteousness and humanity. It 
is our joy that America was one of these nations. 
This is the glorious sign of the times: that 

103 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

there are nations who believe that God is still 
in his heavens and still holds the balances be- 
tween the nations. 

The difference, then, between this war and the 
ancient wars is that the last struggle was not 
merely a conflict of arms; it was also and in 
a larger sense a conflict of ideals. On the 
fields of France right grappled with might, 
justice with injustice, truth with treachery. 
We believe that a new day has dawned upon 
this old world because we saw so many na- 
tions fighting for righteousness and justice, 
liberty and humanity. 

We believe that the new world is here, more- 
over, because we see throughout the whole 
world of humanity to-day a vast new mobiliza- 
tion going on— Germany made a mobilization 
of military power; we see a mobilization of 
moral power. The events of the last four 
years have blasted the old materialistic philos- 
ophy. Racial barriers are being eliminated. 
Class spirit is giving way to the spirit of de- 
mocracy. A new understanding of brotherhood 
IS dawning upon our consciousness and a deep- 
ened respect for the rights of men is being 
incorporated into our laws as well as into our 
creeds. 

104 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

Therefore, though victory for a time attended 
the banners of the adversary, and the thrones 
of the wicked seemed as soHd as the ever- 
lasting hills, "nevertheless, we, according to 
his promise, look for new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 

Another most encouraging sign of the times 
is the character of the leadership developed 
in the nations fighting for humanity. The old- 
time statesmanship was a statesmanship of pure 
intellectuality, of little more than cunning. 
But true statesmanship is not altogether an 
affair of the mind. Mentality has its limita- 
tions; an intellectual colossus may be a spiritual 
dwarf. Cunning is no substitute for justice. 
The soul has a right to a hearing. We may 
crucify the soul, but we cannot destroy it. 
We may ignore the conscience, but its voice 
will not be stilled. We may scorn the laws of 
the Almighty and make laws for ourselves, but 
the laws of God will continue to operate. High 
mentality coupled with low spirituality makes 
the most dangerous combination conceivable. 
We have witnessed the disastrous results of 
such a combination. We may look, in fact, 
upon that contest as a struggle between the 
spiritual statesmanship that enthrones God in 

105 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

the hearts of men and an intellectual states- 
manship that makes power its god. The 
philosophy of life, however, that ignores con- 
science, honor, and the fundamental virtues is 
doomed to defeat. "By their fruits ye shall 
know them" is just as true of leadership as of 
anything else. A leadership born of barba- 
rism, that violates every principle of honor, 
wrecks the fortunes and happiness of countless 
thousands, that teaches men to worship at 
the shrine of militarism — a leadership that 
maims and kills and tortures, that thinks only 
in terms of Zeppelins and submarines — this 
leadership belongs in hell. 

But a new order of statesmanship has come 
into existence — a statesmanship that links 
morality with intellectuality, that demands 
nobility of soul as well as nobility of mind. 
This new statesmanship, this spiritual states- 
manship, is destined to play an ever-increasing 
role in the affairs of nations. To this leader- 
ship you will belong. 

And what shall America be in this new 

world of righteousness? AVhat will the new 

America do to incorporate these principles of 

righteousness and brotherhood into her life? 

Our service of humanity must begin at home. 

106 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

All our millions for the Red Cross and the 
Red Triangle, all our billions spent for mu- 
nitions—yes, all the thousands of precious lives 
given for the salvation of others— will be for 
naught if we do not learn through this war 
to deal justly with our own people here at 
home. Wliile fighting for liberty for others, 
we shall not fail to win a larger liberty for 
ourselves. 

This, then, is the lesson which these times 
bring us. This war has taught us that we 
have souls, created in the spiritual image of 
the Almighty, souls with immeasurable re- 
sources waiting to be developed, and that 
their development is the cardinal object of 
our existence. Just now, however, we have 
a more immediate task to perform; we must 
first make this world a safe and decent place 
to live in, a place in which the souls of men 
can find their true development. 

As we neared the end this war became 
chiefly our war. Belgium, France, Britain, 
and our other allies saved civilization for us. 
But the sword passed to America. Ours was 
the duty, the privilege, the honor, to take up 
the flag of freedom and carry it on to victory! 

Our task has been to put an end forever 
107 



FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 

to Prussianism. By fraud and force Prussia 
sought to conquer the world; if not by this 
war, then, as General Von Freytag of their 
General Staff has written in his book, by an- 
other war soon to follow. To have listened to 
proposals for a Prussian peace, to have com- 
promised with this butcher of men and na- 
tions and let him have all the spoils of his 
crimes to fatten on, would have been as in- 
famous as it would have been foolish. That 
war for democracy had to be fought to a 
successful finish, or we would have robbed 
our children of their heritage of liberty and 
would have left them to fight a still more 
hellish war later. The contest was merely 
the continuation of the struggle for liberty 
begun by the fathers in '76 and carried on 
through all our wars since. As our fathers 
gave liberty to America, so it was our duty 
to give liberty to the world. It is, then, the 
spirit of America that fills us; in us the spirit 
of America conquers again. The spirit of 
America will bring in that "new world wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." 



108 



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